So I've finally decided to play in my first tournament, but I'm not sure what division I should be playing in.

I'm not a pdga member and never played competitively outside of doubles with the local club and an ace race a couple weeks ago. I really have no idea where my ability is compared to other competitive players. I've been playing for several years, but have only began playing seriously for the last 6 months or so. My scores on my home course are all over the place. I can shoot -5 one round and then +10 the next round.

Is there any kind of etiquette for this situation? I don't want to step on any toes, but at the same time, I don't want to get completely blown out.

Three Puttz wrote:So I've finally decided to play in my first tournament, but I'm not sure what division I should be playing in.

I'm not a pdga member and never played competitively outside of doubles with the local club and an ace race a couple weeks ago. I really have no idea where my ability is compared to other competitive players. I've been playing for several years, but have only began playing seriously for the last 6 months or so. My scores on my home course are all over the place. I can shoot -5 one round and then +10 the next round.

Is there any kind of etiquette for this situation? I don't want to step on any toes, but at the same time, I don't want to get completely blown out.

Start in the lowest division offered. This is what this division is for. If you win by a mile or come in last, don't apologize. Try your best, have fun, don't give up (short of disabling injuries or alien invasion).

If you had the best talent in the your division your chances of winning are still not great. Tournaments are not like casual rounds and you must learn the rules, the customs, the pace and the head game. We all started as rookies. Accept and embrace the pressure. Do not be afraid of failure. You will miss shots. We all do. Try to make the next one.

A 10 foot putt will never look the same. In practice it is a gimme. In a casual round it is easy. In a tournament it is scary. This is what makes it fun and exciting.

It's looking like I will be signing up for the Novice division and see how it goes.

I know it will be a different experience than what I am used to, so I expect some jitters and some mistakes to accompany those jitters. I hear everybody throw the sandbagger term around, so it made me think that I should aim high and work my way down in future tournaments until I find the correct division for my skill level to avoid ruffling any feathers.

Play wherever you think you fit in. Are there other players that frequent the doubles league that are signed up? Perhaps you could gauge your ability relative to theirs and make your decision. As Mark said I wouldn't worry about ruffling any feathers, particularly in your first tourney.

Mark always gives really good advice, so you can't go wrong. But here's another option if you want.

Go to disc golf scene and find your home course.Go check out past events, and compare scores for the average round of a tournament to your average score. Make sure you add a few strokes to your score to compensate for the high pressure situation.

Here's the scores from a tournament held last year. Taking into effect it was a two round tourny, I would expect to shoot around -3 on any given day. So Open I would get my ass kicked, advance would be tough and novice would be too easy. So I would probably enroll myself in intermediate as my first ever tournament. Also, since there was only 7 people in novice, compared to 15/16 in advanced and intermediate. I would prefer the larger field myself.

However, I also know I've played with people from both open and advanced, and I know they are a bit better than me, but I can hang with them on my good days. So I would also make sure and take that into effect for later tournaments, but if it's your first tournament I would stick to something a bit more casual.

Thank you so much! I have been looking for a thread like this. I am thinking of playing my first tournament next month. I am going to sign up for the lowest division (Rec Womens) since I know that I'm not going to be any higher than that. Honestly, as nervous as I am, I am completely ok if I finish last. It will help me at least see how much more I need to work on. And I am hoping to have a lot of fun.

Not expecting much can help massively in your first tournament. I've only played one myself but I'd been shooting like crap for several months going into it so I had absolutely 0 expectations going in. I'd figured out by comparing how I shoot and how friends I know shoot roughly what my rating was so I checked in intermediate and finished dead middle of the pack <last cash, as it turns out>. It was a good experience but keep in mind, the pace of play is gonna be really slow. I can do 18 holes in about 45 mins, but the first round of this tourney took 4 hours.